2 Cayman Islands firms plead guilty to U.S. tax evasion

LauraSaunders

Two financial firms based in the Cayman Islands have pleaded guilty to helping U.S. taxpayers hide more than $130 million in offshore accounts, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

The two firms, Cayman National Securities Ltd. and Cayman National Trust Co. Ltd., are both affiliates of Cayman National Corp., which provided investment brokerage and trust management services to individual and entities, according to the Justice Department.

The two firms agreed to pay more than $6 million in fines and will provide U.S. authorities with the files of up to 95% of their U.S. clients who sought to hide assets or income from the Internal Revenue Service.

The guilty pleas are “the first convictions of financial firms outside Switzerland for conspiring with U.S. individuals” to evade taxes, said Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

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